The Meeting
by pinkgargess
Summary: Life was peaceful in the canyons of Riggens, Idaho, for Jennar of the Northridge Clan.  But something changed the night an unexpected visitor showed up. Original characters.


It had been a hard evening on Jennar, and the bright green beaked male was in a fit of temper he wasn't about to let anyone see. He had kept amazingly calm during the announcement, much to the surprise of Lothar, his teacher, and Mortikai, the leader of his clan. Tonight was the night that the next clan leader was picked from among the males in his rookery. There were five of them; Sodor, Todd, Ajax, Jennar, and his twin in everything but color, height, and personality, Jerran. It was Jerran that had been picked.

He figured he wouldn't have minded so much if it had been anyone else, unless of course it was Sodor. Blood lines weren't acknowledged in their clan, and although Sodor was biologically Mortikai's son, he still wasn't good enough for the council. Jennar also understood why Ajax and Todd weren't chosen. Todd was too shy and never stood up for anything, and Ajax tended to pick the wrong solutions and charge into them full speed ahead. Jennar never would see until later just how ruthless his clan considered him. He was smart and strong, and that was all he saw. What he didn't realize was that he often took his ambition to a level where it scared those around him, or that he seemed cold and uncaring to even his own twin. He never seemed to look at how things affected those around him as long as whatever he deemed to be the necessary solution was carried out.

Jennar kept throwing it around in his mind as he raced along the top of the canyon. The wind currents were the strongest there and he enjoyed flipping through the tops of the trees and darting between them. But as he began back down over the side into the gorge, his nose caught an unfamiliar scent. It wasn't from his clan, but it was most certainly gargoyle. He descended down to the level where the smell was stronger, and discovered the scent was female. He glided off in pursuit. It didn't take him long as the female was flying slow, no more than ten feet above the water, turning every once in awhile to dip the tips of her wings down to break the smooth surface of the water. He slowed down as much as he could and continued to watch.

What she was doing was so simple, and yet so graceful. He began looking her over, starting with her brown hair, with just a few flecks of red in it, that trailed down loose and full to just above her tail. She was smaller than any of the females in his rookery; he guessed she wasn't over six feet in length, although he was also the smallest male at just over 7 feet. Most of her skin was a soft creamy color, aside from the skin on the backs of her wings which was a deep mahogany. The supports on her wings themselves were a dark chocolate brown, and they had the same small handed talons at the top that his did. She was wearing a halter style top in white that tied behind her neck and along her sides in many small knots as to leave most of her back covered. However, there was just a small bit of skin showing just above her tail along her back, before the rest of her legs down to her feet were covered with long, loose, dark brown pants. It was the pants that brought his attention out of a lustful stare. He had only ever seen pants on humans.

Lowering himself until he was just a few feet above her, he proceeded to lightly touch her waste to get her attention. He was amazed at her reaction, on account of he believed she had at least some idea that someone was following her, but she twitched horribly, and as she turned to see what in the world was following her, her face became one of complete shock as she took him in. Unfortunately for her, as she turned, she submerged too much of her wing in the swift moving water, and the force was enough to tear her out of the air and down into the water.

Jennar was well aware of the fact that most gargoyles couldn't swim, so he began to gain a little more altitude so he could swoop down and pull her out. He changed his mind a second after watching her. She had folded her wings up across her chest and was swimming a bit like a frog with her head out of the water towards the shore, and it didn't take her long to get there. He glided softly over to the shore right as she was walking up onto the land. Her clothes were clinging to very subtle curves, and just as he was trying to figure her age from them, her wings snapped around her and covered all the parts he realized he shouldn't have been staring at.

"Well thanks a lot for the late night dunking you stupid pervert," she snapped, glaring at him with her eyes glowing only slightly red. She shook some of the water from her hair, causing the silkiness of before to go into dreadlocks that didn't appeal to Jennar nearly as much "Do you speak-a any English?" She mocked in an accent he hadn't heard before, arms visibly crossing under her folded wings. Her tail was twitching faster and madder with every second he was quiet.

"Yes, I can speak," Jennar replied with closed eyes, _best manners_ repeating over and over in his head in hopes of not getting her any more annoyed with him. When he didn't get any kind of a response out of her, he slowly opened his eyes to see her tuned with her back towards him wringing the water from her hair, and then running her talons gently through it. He then said the only thing he could think of. "Hey, what's a pervert?"

She half turned to look at him, and after catching the confused look on his face, she actually began to laugh at him. She than shook her head and began to climb one of the giant boulders that littered the canyon floor to get enough altitude to take off again. Jennar was far from dissuaded, and he beat her to the top of the rock and peered down over his long beak to watch her climb. "You know, where I come from, people like you are considered really cree- oh dear lord," she had only looked directly up as she was about done talking to him and to the top of the rock, and what she saw almost made her sick. Jennar was squatting down by the edge as he offered her a hand to get up, but like most of his clan, Jennar was wearing only a loincloth with very little to hold down what was underneath. The female opened her wings and pushed off from the rock, landing back on the ground. Jennar did likewise and landed beside her.

"Dude, are you aware of the fact that it is the year 2000? Put some damn clothes on!" she yelled as she tuned away from him again and just started walking through the course sand. It was the clothes comment that almost caught his focus again.

"What do you mean put some clothes on? You are the only gargoyle I've ever seen that dresses like a human!" He snapped back, getting sick of being cool and feeling his own temper start to flair.

"Well where I come from both humans and gargoyles had some damn decency! You dress like a damn barbarian! And quite frankly that's gross!" She began walking over to the shoreline and following it back down the direction she had originally came. Her comment had only the slightest effect on Jennar, it made it occur to him that his were the only male parts she had ever seen. For some reason the idea struck him as funny. He struck after her again.

"I really can't believe that you've never seen a naked male before, but it can't have been too bad of a view," he said from behind her while he made his approach. She stopped in her tracks causing the cocky male to almost run into her, and her head tipped down and her eyes tightly shut.

"Get-the hell-away-from me," she said in short, segmented phrases, not opening her eyes, and digging her talons so deeply into her palms that small trickles of blood began to form. Jennar was taken aback, most of those in his clan wouldn't speak that sharply to anyone, least of all a female to a male. He couldn't decide in that moment whether to be mad or to apologize, but decided on the latter at least for the moment, as he noticed tears begin to well at the corners of her eyes.

"I didn't mean any harm, I am sorry," Jennar said, bringing his stance to a lower position and folding his winds down behind his shoulders, so the hands at their tops rested on his shoulders. One tear escaped the corner of her right eye, and she only shook her head and walked past him. She walked over to another boulder and climbed quickly not giving Jennar a chance to follow, and launched herself into the air. Had Jennar been with any of his clan he would have let her go, but alone he followed, catching her easily as she flew, and asked as sincerely as he could "What happened to you? Wait, no, I'm sorry, I am Jennar of the Northridge Clan. Welcome to our canyon. Please as least stay through the day, the sun will be rising soon. She didn't answer, but looked at the sky. She then turned and picked a wide ledge and touched down on the cliff. Jennar did the same being sure to keep as much distance as he could between them. "Will you at least tell me your name, or do want me to just go?" He asked, making one last attempt to leave a good impression.

"Rachel," she responded almost mechanically. He subconsciously frowned, causing her to look down. "Doesn't matter anyways. I'll be leaving your "territory" tomorrow night."

"Look, you don't have to-" but the sun caught him, turning them both to stone, Rachel in a fallen angel sulk and him with exasperated arms.


End file.
